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Monday, October 26, 2009

☞ REMEMBER: 116th and Lenox Circa 1893

Before the various cycles of development started in Harlem, there was always a beginning. The above photo shows 116th Street by Lenox Avenue around 1893. Yes, those are cows standing around an open watering hole. The middle class apartment buildings can be seen encroaching on the once pastoral setting. The farmer was probably one of the last ones to sell out. Click on photo to enlarge. It's highly possible that the Harlem luxury condo development called the Kalahari sits on the exact site of the 1893 farm (second photo). The last photo is a building in the area that was the location of the original N Boutique, which may or may not be the same pediment cornice in the original photo. There's quite a bit of new construction at this juncture of Lenox, so many of the original buildings are long gone. The church to the left is definitely nowhere in sight. Top image courtesy of NYPL. Lower photos by Ulysses. The 2,3 train takes one to this area today that is just outside the Mount Morris Historic District.

Neat find! Assuming that's 116th St. in the picture, the vegetation and shadows indicate that the picture was taken looking south. If the photographer was standing on Lenox that would make the field the where the Bernheimer Building, which Conway is in, stands today. If the front of the dark building at center were facing Lenox the field would be where the Renaissance stands.

The standing water makes sense for 116th and Lenox. The early subway was prone to flooding there because of groundwater. The water can still be seen being pumped southward between the downtown tracks.

Thanks for the current photos, very interesting. It clearly shows an earlier stage in Harlem’s development and a significant changing of the guard from rural farmland to paved city grid. Similarly Harlem like the rest of NYC remains under constant change that is so well documented by this site.

If I may, I think that the building on the far right with the angled roof is the church that still exists on 116th between 5th and Lenox, on the south side of the street, on the left (east) side of the Kalihari. That would mean that the photographer was standing on 115th facing due east.I made a map: (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=40.802343,-73.945262&spn=0.009453,0.015965&z=16&msid=116015357220921215188.0004770aab376ce20ff6d)

Ralph, that would be a brilliant deduction. The Baptist Temple Church, which would have been a synagogue in 1893, has had some structural problems recently, so it doesn't quite look the same. Shape wise, it makes sense but the proportion between the side crenellations and the pitched facade seem a little off for it to be the same building in the above photo. Note the point of the roof up front is a good two stories higher than the side battlement. The Baptist Church had a less steeper point that matches up to the side structures.